I was struck by a fitness instructor.

Not physically — though that might have enlivened the circuits class quite considerably. No, it was more a case of being struck by his weariness; his sluggish ennui at having to take the session that I (and many others, this being January) had turned up to.

Perhaps his ‘vitamin supplements’ had not arrived; rendering him dangerously low on energy? Had the juice bar run out of chia, macao or goji mojo? Or maybe, and more likely, he simply couldn’t care less because as a freelance instructor, he didn’t work for the gym chain that I pay a hefty monthly membership fee to? He was, and is, outsourced product delivery. So he turned up, delivered a product, damaged a brand, and went off to do the same down the road at another big fitness chain.

Outsourced product and service delivery is very now — the two most famous being Uber and Air B&B. It’s a tantalizing model for brands as it appears to maximize profit and minimize responsibility.

However in health and fitness, outsourcing product and service delivery, while no doubt making financial sense, puts the experience and reputation of your brand at great risk.

This is because true differentiation of product in the sector is just as big a myth as the idea that there is a quick fix for fat people who want to be thinner. Differentiation, if you can achieve it, is at best it is short lived and ephemeral in nature. Successful new fitness classes and formats can and will be copied quickly and efficiently by your competitors. Fads will come and go. Old will be packaged as new: what I call circuits I ought really to be calling hiit, or even tabata.

Not that any of this should be a source of worry if you are a health and fitness brand — for as the exhaustive and comprehensive research behind ‘How Brands Grow’ has shown, when it comes to consumer choice, the ‘distinctiveness’ of your brand is arguably far more important than any differentiation of product or service delivery.:

“Our own findings across 17 markets show that unless there is an outstanding functional (especially price and/or location) difference, Evidence concerning the importance of perceived brand differentiation, consumers do not see the brand they buy as differentiated from other brands. Yet these brands are bought, and many are successful and profitable. This suggests that much of our current brand strategy and research agenda, both academically and in industry, is misdirected

We are not concluding that differentiation does not exist, but that it is weaker and less important than is generally assumed. “

Which brings me back to the disinterested instructor — and his dim flickering bulb of interest. Circuits is what it is — the world over it’s about basic exercises performed at intensity, with variety. So I go to the class knowing the product and positive about that fact as I know what will be expected of my mind (little) and body (a lot). But if the class is going to deliver on the distinctive brand promise of the upmarket gym chain that I pay good money to, then that instructor could, and should, have made the class as distinctive in its experience as the advertising posters, digital, social and membership material claim. He didn’t — and it only takes a small number of experiences like that for you to question the monthly debit; to start to tot up how that costs you a year, to work out how much each visit costs you, and then to start to look at other options.

So how, without the financially suicidal option of attempting to contract instructors full or even part time, can you improve the chance that your brand service experience will be as consistent as the far easier product delivery?

Here’s one idea — backed up by a couple of examples from two very different fitness operators. When you’re recruiting your freelance instructors — add in some distinctive personality or behavioural characteristic outside of the standard qualifications, experience or expertise.

For example Major Robin Cope built up British Military Fitness from an instructor group of one (him) to a brand operating in 120 parks across the UK. Robin recruited new instructors who met very distinctive criteria — they were either serving or past members of HM Forces, and just as important, they were men and women with ‘the right stuff’. Individuals who demonstrated the qualities that the BMF brand sold itself on — fun, loyalty, commitment, and teamwork. BMF is an easy business to copy — it’s not differentiated versus the hundreds of small military bootcamps that have followed it. But BMF is not an easy brand to copy — as its taken those distinctive characteristics that drove its core park class business and used them to launch new products such as the hugely successful ‘Major’ adventure race series.*

When Colin Waggett was setting up Psycle in London, he too had a very different criteria with regard to instructor recruitment. Psycle’s mission is to” inspire people to lead vibrant, energetic and happy lives”. Having had extensive experience of the industry when he was CEO of Fitness First, Colin knew that just recruiting a collection of bog standard bored gym bunny instructors was not going to deliver on that promise. So they looked for people in dance studios, or drama schools; anywhere really where they thought that they might find the right kind of extrovert, positive, 24 hour exercise party people for Pyscle.

I’ve done both BMF and Pyscle and they’re very different. One outdoors, high impact and anti-fashion with their terrible tabard bibs. The other indoors, low impact, and so chic it feels wrong to sweat when everyone else is merely glistening. Both however, are staffed by people who embody everything that is good and distinctive about the brands. People who make me laugh, engage me and make an hour of exercise spin, twist and burpee past in a blur of fun. I’ve certainly never been bored at either — or thought it a waste of time and crucially — money.

So here’s to distinctiveness, and personality, and character, and using it to make sure that while the product might be outsourced, the brand never is.